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Every year, I swear that I'm gong to complete the poem-a-day challenge in April to help celebrate National Poetry Month. Every year, I fail, in spite of all my good intentions. I thought that this year I would have more success because I am on sabbatical and don't have the usual end-of-the semester obligations looming over me. Alas, I only managed to write about 5 poems. Maybe next year.

This does not mean, however, that I didn't partake in any poetry events. A few weeks ago, I traveled to Columbus, Ohio, where I attended the grand opening of the Worthington Northwest Library's poetry garden where my poem, "Yellowjackets" was featured, along with work by other poets including David Baker, Maggie Smith, David Romtvedt, and James Wright. It was a wonderful visit!

I also have had poems published in The Cumberland River Review and Busted Dharma. You can read them here and here.

Finally, if you have not entered this year's Big Poetry Giveaway, you need to do so, very, very soon. The deadline is Thursday! See my giveaway details here.

As I post this, I know that many of you are recovering from your travels to AWP. Still, I couldn't resist adding a few more notes about how we should be celebrating National Poetry Month.

First, poet Diane Lockward is highlighting new poetry books at her blog. She has already talked about two of my favorite collections that have been published this year, Mendeleev's Mandala by Jessica Goodfellow and The Arranged Marriage by Jehanne Dubrow, but I'm looking forward to her introduction of other books.

Second, poet Aimee Nezhukumatahil has put together a collection of what poets are wearing and what poets are reading in Poets & Shoes. If you look hard enough, you may spot my favorite pair of red boots (along with a note that I am reading Leaving Clean by Natalie Giarratano -- a wonderful read). Take a look for some great poetry (and shoes!) recommendations.

Finally, it's not just National Poetry Month! Anyone who lives in a sports-orientated home knows that Baseball season has started! Hobart has launched its issue dedicated to baseball, and two of my baseball poems are included in this edition.

This year, the first book I plan on giving away is titled In the Permanent Collection by Stefanie Wortman. Winner of the 2013 Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry, Wortman's book explores the disorder found in life. Chad Davidson, in a back cover blurb, says, "These poems seem haunted by a mostly nameless melancholia. In the PermanentCollection, however, turns its grim geography of prisons, mortuaries, and tawdry suburbs into something close to classical elegy." A great read!

The second book is a copy of my own chapbook, Wearing Heels in the Rust Belt, winner of Main Street Rag's 2011 Chapbook contest. Published in 2012, my chapbook explores the world of rural Rust Belt Pennsylvania through narrative poems. Poet Jeannine Hall Gailey says that this "chapbook captures an essential, flamboyant defiance against the landscape, women painting their nails bright colors even as their night shifts in factories cover them with cuts, bruises and grime."

Both winners will also receive an assortment of literary journals from my collection!

Please enter your name and contact information below. If you are new to my web page, please click my About link above. You have until April 30 to leave a comment. I will announce the winners sometime at the start of May.

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I am a poet and professor from rural Pennsylvania. This page is dedicated to my publishing news and events; for book reviews published online go to the Reviews tab above. For my own personal reviews, explore the Book Picks tab.